Dear Majerus Haters...

[SLUSt.Boogie]

Before you post your next attack on our coach, I think it is time to slow down and think a bit about what you are saying.

--If you want to criticize him on recruiting: last years roster (pre-suspensions) was the most talented I have ever seen on a Billiken squad top to bottom in my 24 years of life and Billiken fanhood. This years is the same way. We are currently recruiting several top players in the nation. We may land them, we may not, that is recruiting.

--If you want to criticize him on his record: I believe this will be the first year we can chew him out if he misses the tournament. Despite it being his 5th year here, its only his 3rd "gradeable" year IMO. 1st season is thrown out cause he was hired so late to even recruit and last season is out for obvious reasons. Lets see how the team is this year.

--If you want to criticize his coaching/teaching ability: you're a moron.

I will warn you Majerus haters to thoroughly enjoy every game and every minute of these next 2 years despite being spiteful of his success for some reason. If he does not extend his contract here, I can guarantee you that we will never see a coach as good as him (HOF, John Wooden Award Winner, National runner-up, 500+ wins) at SLU as a destination job.

WIN

[Bobby Metzinger]

Was he considered a member of the team? I think his 0 minutes may make that GPA irrelevant.

Didn't the dean in "Old School" average in Blue's scores even though he was dead? I could see similar things happening with Reed's Blutarskian effort.

[JettFlight5]

Didn't the dean in "Old School" average in Blue's scores even though he was dead? I could see similar things happening with Reed's Blutarskian effort.

Metz, I'd love to argue with you for the sake of argument, but this is solid. You win sir.

[Bobby Metzinger]

Metz, I'd love to argue with you for the sake of argument, but this is solid. You win sir.

hahah well, I do what I can, sir. Appreciate the gesture, and a tip o' the cap to you as well.

[waldo027]

first i will say (for about the 1,000th time) i have no doubt majerus is going to win. wouldnt surprise me to see a sweet 16 the next two years. for those shortsighted fans that only care about winning, great! we get to hang a hell of a banner in chaifetz.

my b!tch has never been about whether he will win, but on how he gets there. i hate the way he handles the program. he has few friends in the media, in neighborhood businesses, in the boosters, in his players, in his own department, in the school. granted it isnt necessarily about winning friends. but that is a clue that something isnt exactly right either.

he treats people around him horribly. he plays favorites with his players. he alienates people for no good reason he is just a horrible person. one i sure as hell am not proud to claim as my alma mater's basketball coach. when someone not close to the program asks me about the billikens, i typically spend the majority of the conversation apologizing for majerus.

i just think the program should be successful and be about the good things.

instead, he doesnt really have a winning record that stands out anymore than any of our recent coaches, we have a revolving door of players, almuni players have been shunned, local businesses, shudder at the thought of him, the media now goes out of their way not to cover the billikens, our academic graduation rate is rumored to be dropping like crazy, this isnt what i envisioned when he came to town.

but i do think he will win. i will be very happy for the players when we do. and i am content to realize that i was a loyal billiken booster long before he came and will be here long after he is gone.

Do you regularly talk to all the players, assistant coaches, boosters, and everyone else at the university to know that he has "few friends" among those people? Do you spend a lot of time with Majerus to know for a fact that he treats people horribly and is a flat out horrible person? Or did you just completely make all that up?

As mentioned already, Willie Reed was also not a member of the team at any point last season, so there should be no reason why his GPA should count as part of the team's GPA.

[billiken_roy]

Below is the link to this year's A-10 conference awards that show that Conklin and Eckerle were on the A-10 All Aceademic team.

2010-11 Conference Awards

i was looking for the link that shows the billikens as a team had the highest men's basketball team gpa.

[JettFlight5]

i was looking for the link that shows the billikens as a team had the highest men's basketball team gpa.

And all of this is relevant why?

[jbizzle09]

Do you regularly talk to all the players, assistant coaches, boosters, and everyone else at the university to know that he has "few friends" among those people? Do you spend a lot of time with Majerus to know for a fact that he treats people horribly and is a flat out horrible person? Or did you just completely make all that up?

As mentioned already, Willie Reed was also not a member of the team at any point last season, so there should be no reason why his GPA should count as part of the team's GPA.

This right here is what ticks me off about Roy in regards to Majerus. He has repeatedly called him a horrible (or despicable, terrible, disgusting, etc.) person while at the same time admitting that he does not know Majerus personally and is merely going off of his own personal opinion of the man. While it is one thing to disagree with a person's viewpoints, methods or philosophy, it is another to just personally judge a person in this matter. The fact that Roy consistently states that Majerus is a bad person, instead of just saying that Majerus has done things he doesn't agree with, basically states that you cannot have a reasonable discussion with him about our head coach.

[pdolwick]

I will warn you Majerus haters to thoroughly enjoy every game and every minute of these next 2 years despite being spiteful of his success for some reason. If he does not extend his contract here, I can guarantee you that we will never see a coach as good as him (HOF, John Wooden Award Winner, National runner-up, 500+ wins) at SLU as a destination job.

I'm neither a hater nor an adoring acolyte (which I suspect puts in me in the same middleground as 99% of posters), but I don't agree w/ the statement that we'll never see a coach as good as him. To my mind there are dozens of coaches out there who, given minimal support from admin and fans, could turn Bills into a perennial tourney participant. My basis for that would just be having seen it happen elsewhere. They may leave for bigger ponds after some success, but I think we'd all take that at this point.

Pat D.

[The Pelican]

This right here is what ticks me off about Roy in regards to Majerus. He has repeatedly called him a horrible (or despicable, terrible, disgusting, etc.) person while at the same time admitting that he does not know Majerus personally and is merely going off of his own personal opinion of the man. While it is one thing to disagree with a person's viewpoints, methods or philosophy, it is another to just personally judge a person in this matter. The fact that Roy consistently states that Majerus is a bad person, instead of just saying that Majerus has done things he doesn't agree with, basically states that you cannot have a reasonable discussion with him about our head coach.

Agreed. Don't forget too that he would rather apologize and talk negatively about RM than speak highly of our players to those who ask about the program. No wonder the people around him think the program stinks.

[Clock_Tower]

Who are you talking to? If it's me, I don't hate Majerus at all. I like Majerus and I'm glad he is our coach. I don't look certain things, but I don't think it's an all or nothing proposal. I am just as excited as anyone when we win and hope Majerus has incredible success with us. I think he has proven to be a good in-game coach and we have certainly enjoyed recruiting success.

I also think people make too many excuses for Majerus and that if we have a down year again it could be time to look at the big picture.

If RM has "certainly enjoyed recruiting success" then why the need to bash him at every step about recruiting?? Criticism is one thing. Unsubstantiated, and flat out wrong, attacks is quite another.

Repeated comments that he is lazy. That PM is the guy who really deserves the credit for recruiting. That dumb ole SLU just won't offer a scholarship to Malcolm .... Notice you have been rather quiet since Nate told all us that you were wrong -- that SLU had, in fact, been recruiting Malcolm, that Malcolm had offers from schools other than Mizzou despite what you read on the Internet, that it was a mere formality that the Illini's offer would be made in person in a few weeks instead of by phone/text/email or the like. Frankly, the kid may just not be that interested in SLU as it may be inferred from Nate's talk with his Dad. Sure sounds like SLU has been quite active, anything but lazy, with guys from Thomas to Winters to Cheivous to Bruenig to the Wisc walk-on. Effort? yes. Success at the end of the day. If we come up empty - w/ only JM, then criticism is warranted. Then again, if we get a transfer who must sit out a year, that would leave one schollie left. I'm fine giving it and the other 2 (BC's and KC's) to 3 kids in the Fall.

[GoBills]

Below is the link to this year's A-10 conference awards that show that Conklin and Eckerle were on the A-10 All Aceademic team.

2010-11 Conference Awards

Coach Majerus has also mentioned that he believed Evans was worthy of the honor too, but was probably hurt by just being a freshman and having two teammates also on the all academic team. He thinks Evans will earn that honor in the future.

[The Pelican]

If RM has "certainly enjoyed recruiting success" then why the need to bash him at every step about recruiting?? Criticism is one thing. Unsubstantiated, and flat out wrong, attacks is quite another.

Repeated comments that he is lazy. That PM is the guy who really deserves the credit for recruiting. That dumb ole SLU just won't offer a scholarship to Malcolm .... Notice you have been rather quiet since Nate told all us that you were wrong -- that SLU had, in fact, been recruiting Malcolm, that Malcolm had offers from schools other than Mizzou despite what you read on the Internet, that it was a mere formality that the Illini's offer would be made in person in a few weeks instead of by phone/text/email or the like. Frankly, the kid may just not be that interested in SLU as it may be inferred from Nate's talk with his Dad. Sure sounds like SLU has been quite active, anything but lazy, with guys from Thomas to Winters to Cheivous to Bruenig to the Wisc walk-on. Effort? yes. Success at the end of the day. If we come up empty - w/ only JM, then criticism is warranted. Then again, if we get a transfer who must sit out a year, that would leave one schollie left. I'm fine giving it and the other 2 (BC's and KC's) to 3 kids in the Fall.

Basically the way he acknowledges effort/recruiting/interest is only if it is posted on the web. He has no idea as to what really goes on day to day with SLU recruiting.

[Clock_Tower]

Basically the way he acknowledges effort/recruiting/interest is only if it is posted on the web. He has no idea as to what really goes on day to day with SLU recruiting.

Agreed.

I admit that I have never coached college basketball or recruited any highschool player. With that said, I'm trying to imagine how the early contacts with these kids typcially go - with RM/SLU as well as every other D1 school. I cannot imagine ANY reasonable communication in which would NOT suggest a scholarship offer -- from the very first contact - whether in 8th grade or Frosh, Soph, JR or SR year in highschool. For instance, some really good 15 or 16 year old Sophomore is approached by the D1's school's assistant coach who does the heavy lifting and says one of two (2) things:

1. (Via the kid's coach). In general, we like your player, he's a great player and would fit in great with our team and program. Of course, we really don't know if we have a scholarship now for him or not. Frankly, it will depend upon whether players A and B return for the Senior years and if player C makes grades. Instead, we will keep in touch and let you know by next year, and then, we will want him to commit to us first b/c first is really important to our misinformed boosters. Therefore, we have real interest but officially are not offering him a scholarship at this time but hope to soon. Anyway, remind him that it really doesn't matter since our policy is not to officially offer scholarships until his Junior year. Keep up the good work.

2. (Via the kid's coach). We really like your player, he's a great player and would in great with our team and program. Two years out is long time but will defintely have a scholarship for him, and if not, I will make room if necessary. As soon as he can become a Billiken, we want to sign him.

If posters would only think before the post. Reading about offers made or not made on the Internet with the concept that recruiting is some horserace or game won by the first or earliest person to "offer" a scholarship is not a reasonable or reliable manner to evaluate a program's recruting efforts and then then to repeatly take public shots at them.

[NH]

If RM has "certainly enjoyed recruiting success" then why the need to bash him at every step about recruiting?? Criticism is one thing. Unsubstantiated, and flat out wrong, attacks is quite another.

Repeated comments that he is lazy. That PM is the guy who really deserves the credit for recruiting. That dumb ole SLU just won't offer a scholarship to Malcolm .... Notice you have been rather quiet since Nate told all us that you were wrong -- that SLU had, in fact, been recruiting Malcolm, that Malcolm had offers from schools other than Mizzou despite what you read on the Internet, that it was a mere formality that the Illini's offer would be made in person in a few weeks instead of by phone/text/email or the like. Frankly, the kid may just not be that interested in SLU as it may be inferred from Nate's talk with his Dad. Sure sounds like SLU has been quite active, anything but lazy, with guys from Thomas to Winters to Cheivous to Bruenig to the Wisc walk-on. Effort? yes. Success at the end of the day. If we come up empty - w/ only JM, then criticism is warranted. Then again, if we get a transfer who must sit out a year, that would leave one schollie left. I'm fine giving it and the other 2 (BC's and KC's) to 3 kids in the Fall.

I think that RM is a good recruiter. I also think he is not the go-getter at this point in his career that some other coaches might be. I think PM deserved a lot of credit for the "heavy lifting" and then RM did a good job providing a name guy and sealing the deal.

I have a good relationship with Nate Latsch. He updated Billikenreport.com subscribers on Hill's recruitment since Hill was an eighth grader. I was well aware of that information, it doesn't change my point. Hill Jr. himself said that Mizzou was his first offer. I guess SIUC came just on the heels of that.

We have clearly exhibited a lot of effort in recruiting lately (as all schools do) but with the loss of PM I fear we are behind in this and next year's classes. That is my concern.

I have said nothing that was "flat-out wrong".

[NH]

If RM has "certainly enjoyed recruiting success" then why the need to bash him at every step about recruiting?? Criticism is one thing. Unsubstantiated, and flat out wrong, attacks is quite another.

Repeated comments that he is lazy. That PM is the guy who really deserves the credit for recruiting. That dumb ole SLU just won't offer a scholarship to Malcolm .... Notice you have been rather quiet since Nate told all us that you were wrong -- that SLU had, in fact, been recruiting Malcolm, that Malcolm had offers from schools other than Mizzou despite what you read on the Internet, that it was a mere formality that the Illini's offer would be made in person in a few weeks instead of by phone/text/email or the like. Frankly, the kid may just not be that interested in SLU as it may be inferred from Nate's talk with his Dad. Sure sounds like SLU has been quite active, anything but lazy, with guys from Thomas to Winters to Cheivous to Bruenig to the Wisc walk-on. Effort? yes. Success at the end of the day. If we come up empty - w/ only JM, then criticism is warranted. Then again, if we get a transfer who must sit out a year, that would leave one schollie left. I'm fine giving it and the other 2 (BC's and KC's) to 3 kids in the Fall.

I think that RM is a good recruiter. I also think he is not the go-getter at this point in his career that some other coaches might be. I think PM deserved a lot of credit for the "heavy lifting" and then RM did a good job providing a name guy and sealing the deal.

I have a good relationship with Nate Latsch. He updated Billikenreport.com subscribers on Hill's recruitment since Hill was an eighth grader. I was well aware of that information, it doesn't change my point. Hill Jr. himself said that Mizzou was his first offer. I guess SIUC came just on the heels of that.

We have clearly exhibited a lot of effort in recruiting lately (as all schools do) but with the loss of PM I fear we are behind in this and next year's classes. That is my concern.

I have said nothing that was "flat-out wrong".

[HusakAttack]

My general point was that a lot of people here spend a lot of time nitpicking at what Majerus does. Instead of arguing semantics just think before you go on the next rampage against coach: "What better coach could we get that would want to come here?" The answer is quite obviously nowhere near the quality of Majerus and probably never will be again in my lifetime unless we hire a junior marketing analyst from Eli Lilly.

[Randy]

After reading these rants... I want to offer up a question for debate:

Do you think PM will make more of an impact at Loyola in his first 4 seasons than RM did at SLU?

-I vote Yes.

I know there are certain "situations" that hindered RM's time here at SLU..but Poop Happens to everyone..

PM is nowhere near the coach RM is, but I believe his recruiting is far superior and we will see Loyola in the tournament within the next 4 years.. The conference is nowhere near the A-10 but giving PM Chicago as a home base for recruiting will also give him a huge advantage..

Interested to see how this all pans out..

[brianstl]

My general point was that a lot of people here spend a lot of time nitpicking at what Majerus does. Instead of arguing semantics just think before you go on the next rampage against coach: "What better coach could we get that would want to come here?" The answer is quite obviously nowhere near the quality of Majerus and probably never will be again in my lifetime unless we hire a junior marketing analyst from Eli Lilly.

Good coaches have been attracted to this job in the past and good coaches will be attracted to this job in the future. Cuonzo Martin wanted this job badly before Rickma accepted it. Spoon wanted this job. Bruce Weber wanted the job. Romar wanted this job.

[NH]

My general point was that a lot of people here spend a lot of time nitpicking at what Majerus does. Instead of arguing semantics just think before you go on the next rampage against coach: "What better coach could we get that would want to come here?" The answer is quite obviously nowhere near the quality of Majerus and probably never will be again in my lifetime unless we hire a junior marketing analyst from Eli Lilly.

It's a message board. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to point out possible concerns you have, especially when the program is not successful.

I think Tony LaRussa probably wins the cardinals a lot of games. But I'm still going to get upset if he puts Ryan Franklin in the game in a key spot this year.

[jbizzle09]

It's a message board. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to point out possible concerns you have, especially when the program is not successful.

I think Tony LaRussa probably wins the cardinals a lot of games. But I'm still going to get upset if he puts Ryan Franklin in the game in a key spot this year.

As this is a Billikens message board, you should have every right to express your opinions and concerns on the basketball program. However, once you post your opinion or concern on this board, you should expect that others might disagree and they will express dissenting opinions. Also, if you post something as fact and it appears to actually be based somewhat or wholly on your opinion, then you should expect a further backlash by other posters on said message board.

It isn't a one-way street. It will typically be point-counterpoint. And the stronger you voice your opinion, the stronger the backlash will most likely be. You can't have everyone agree with you all the time. And sometimes, nobody is going to agree with you. If you don't like others disagreeing with you, calling you out over your past statements or the like, perhaps this message board isn't for you.

[NH]

As this is a Billikens message board, you should have every right to express your opinions and concerns on the basketball program. However, once you post your opinion or concern on this board, you should expect that others might disagree and they will express dissenting opinions. Also, if you post something as fact and it appears to actually be based somewhat or wholly on your opinion, then you should expect a further backlash by other posters on said message board.

It isn't a one-way street. It will typically be point-counterpoint. And the stronger you voice your opinion, the stronger the backlash will most likely be. You can't have everyone agree with you all the time. And sometimes, nobody is going to agree with you. If you don't like others disagreeing with you, calling you out over your past statements or the like, perhaps this message board isn't for you.

I have no problem with others disagreeing. But this thread is saying unless we think that someone could do as good a job or better than Majerus (which based solely on results, would not be that hard) then we can't criticize. I think that's silly. RM has not earned infallibility, even if he is a HoF coach.

[Bobby Metzinger]

I have no problem with others disagreeing. But this thread is saying unless we think that someone could do as good a job or better than Majerus (which based solely on results, would not be that hard) then we can't criticize. I think that's silly. RM has not earned infallibility, even if he is a HoF coach.

Post of the Year candidate.

[NH]

Post of the Year candidate.

not really.

[Bobby Metzinger]

not really.

I think it is. Your point about people being critics is on target. God forbid anyone say something negative. And who has the audacity to say that your opinions will be bashed if they aren't in line with the rest of a message board?